Saturday, 1 August 2015

August News Part 1

Midland Railway (later M&GN) 1886 6 Wheel Picnic Saloon 3

A last push on the lining for the saloon has now seen the final sections applied by Brian Ashby to the seaward side chassis which completes this aspect of the painting. As reported previously, the ends of the vehicle have had two coats of varnish whereas the sides have only had one, so the two sides have been flatted back again this week ready for a second coat of varnish.

On the underneath, the vacuum cylinder has been test fitted again but requires adjustments before being declared serviceable.

Great Northern Railway (later M&GN) 1887 6 Wheel Third 129

More of the chassis has been brought up to the gloss black stage, whilst many of the “bit and bobs” for the springs and underframe components have been painted in undercoat, so are not far being the chassis itself. The timber packers which sit between the wooden carriage body and the steel underframe are now also in undercoat. The long draw hooks have been shortened by seven inches (to cater for the reduction in underframe length) and re-threaded on the lathe so that they can be refitted into the modified underframe using the original fixings. Meanwhile on the brakegear, the beams which cross the width of the vehicle and hold the brake shoes themselves have had their worn spigots on the end built back up with weld and dressed by none other than Axeman Collier, “man of sparks”. Additionally, four worn bushes have been replaced in the same beams.

British Railways 1957 Mark 1 Tourist Second Open E4641

The last quarter of the coach to be repaired, the Sheringham end/landward side, has had its appearance transformed with all the old panels being pulled off and consigned to the skip, revealing the entire framework underneath for the required repairs. We are pleased to say that this section is in much better condition that the seaward side sections, so we are anticipating that less work and time will be required to make the repairs. Already, several of the wasted framework sections which lie below the windows have been cut out and replaced with new. The four window frames which were removed from this section last week are now also in the process of being stripped down and any sheared off pins repaired.

Meanwhile, stalwart volunteer Steve continues to singlehandedly work his way through varnish stripping the entire interior, he is currently somewhere in the middle of the stack of wood which came out of the Sheringham end saloon.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041

The bogie overhaul (minus brake rigging) has now been completed with the Sheringham end receiving cleaning and painting (up to black gloss) work rapidly. The bogie frames, wheelsets and axleboxes were all completed and fully reassembled back into the bogie this week. This was followed by the coach being lowered back onto its bogies temporarily and then moved into the staged area whilst the DMU comes out for its lining and underframe to be completed. The brake rigging is to be completed and refitted to E43041 once it comes back out of the staging area. The battery box interiors, pictured last week, were painted gloss black just before the coach was shunted. Once E43041 entered the staging, all the grab handles and doors were removed for future restoration. However as a prelude, all the door locks have already been removed and overhauled.

E43041 without doors in the staging

British Railways 1954 Mark 1 Suburban Third W46139

Work continues on the reupholstering of the seats. On the inside of the vehicle, 8 new steel “fire guards” have been fabricated and fitted to the coach, these are simple sheets of metal that sit between each compartment behind the seats and are designed to prevent fire spreading too quickly down the coach should the worst happen. The rest of the interior refit is awaiting the completion of DMU E56062 so that W46139 can come back in the shed.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Third Lavatory Open E48001

Revarnishing of woodwork and toilet reconstruction continue as described in previous weeks. One notable repair completed has been the patching of some snapped Formica panels from the toilet, a difficult task as we have no spare Formica of that pattern to patch them with. A wooden patch has been made up and colour matched to the (faded) Formica, which after fitting looks better that it sounds in my description.

The lower of the two bodyside lines is now in the process of being painted on. Some other outstanding tasks for the repaint have also been attended to now that the vehicle is no longer in the staged area. These have included repainting of the bufferbeam, front end pipes, solebar, jumper cable sockets and the blue square multiple working codes on the cab and corridor ends.

The front end showing the repainted blue squares and bufferbeam

Victory

To follow up the soapbox in the Carriage & Wagon’s endeavour to provide a rolling advert for the NNR, three C&W members plus another two from the Engineering department went to Aldborough (south of Cromer) to join members of their own club for a game of Cricket and amazingly, two of the C&W members won! An impromptu ceremony was of course required back at base the next morning, with the proud recipients adding another trophy to C&W’s rapidly expanding cabinet of accolades.